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Nick Travers #3
Dark End of the Street
Former pro football player-turned-college professor Nick Travers came of age in a smoky New Orleans bar -- and he owes a monumental debt to its owners, Jo Jo and Loretta, who took him under their wings. Now Loretta wants Nick to locate her missing brother, the legendary singer Clyde James, who vanished in the sixties after his wife and a band member were murdered. The Dixie Mafia, a blonde bombshell grifter, and an Elvis-worshipping hitman are suddenly interested in the soul man as well, and Nick can't help wondering why. The answer lies somewhere in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, where casino money, dirty politics, and old secrets bubble to the surface of the New South.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2002
34 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Ace Atkins
67Ìýbooks1,493ÌýfollowersAce Atkins is the author of twenty-eight books, including eleven Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which, The Ranger and The Lost Ones, were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he has a third Edgar nomination for his short story "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"). He is the author of nine New York Times-bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times and a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune, and he played defensive end for Auburn University football.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 12, 2023
In this 3rd book in the Nick Travers series, Ace Atkins sends his blues historian to Memphis and incorporates a little soul into his series.
One night while sitting in his long-time friend Jojo's bar, Jojo's wife Loretta drags Travers aside to ask him to find her brother for her. She had recently received a visit from a couple of men looking for him and wanted to make sure he was alright. However, the word was that her brother, broken down soul legend Clyde Jones had died recently in Memphis where he had been living as a homeless shell of a man. No one could confirm Clyde's death for him when Travers asked around, in fact, his questions made some people downright uncomfortable.
Meanwhile in Tunica a young woman by the name of Abby who is still trying to come to grips with the murder of her father and mother is being stalked by Perfect Leigh. Perfect works for Levi Ransom, a member of the Dixie mafia and a very dangerous man. Abby is eventually captured and is in the process of being interrogated, none too gently, when Nick's path crosses hers in dramatic circumstances, immediately casting him as her knight in shining armor and Ransom's bitter enemy.
The story quickly progresses from a missing person's case to a fight for survival as Nick gets caught between the Dixie mafia and a white supremist group who call themselves the Sons of the South. Apart from a small continuity problem towards the end where we seemed to jump from scene to scene without any logical reason, this is another enthralling music-base mystery.
Ace Atkins is starting to make a habit of coming up with some very off-beat characters to play his villains, rather reminiscent of James W. Hall and his unique portrayal of rogues. In his previous book, , Atkins introduced us to Annie and Fannie, a couple of killer prostitutes with a love of Archie comics and, in Annie's case, a special relationship with her knife. Now, in Dark End of the Street we get a hit man who is not only a devotee of Elvis Presley but who believes Elvis is a divine being. Although the man is obviously an efficient and remorseless killer it's rather difficult to take a man seriously when he's kneeling and praying to his higher being, Elvis Presley.
He has also done a terrific job of capturing the atmosphere of Memphis through the style of music Travers recalls, the bars he frequents on Beale Street and the house styles that are noted as he moves through the city. I enjoyed experiencing the feeling of visiting Memphis almost as much as the story around which the visit was based.
One night while sitting in his long-time friend Jojo's bar, Jojo's wife Loretta drags Travers aside to ask him to find her brother for her. She had recently received a visit from a couple of men looking for him and wanted to make sure he was alright. However, the word was that her brother, broken down soul legend Clyde Jones had died recently in Memphis where he had been living as a homeless shell of a man. No one could confirm Clyde's death for him when Travers asked around, in fact, his questions made some people downright uncomfortable.
Meanwhile in Tunica a young woman by the name of Abby who is still trying to come to grips with the murder of her father and mother is being stalked by Perfect Leigh. Perfect works for Levi Ransom, a member of the Dixie mafia and a very dangerous man. Abby is eventually captured and is in the process of being interrogated, none too gently, when Nick's path crosses hers in dramatic circumstances, immediately casting him as her knight in shining armor and Ransom's bitter enemy.
The story quickly progresses from a missing person's case to a fight for survival as Nick gets caught between the Dixie mafia and a white supremist group who call themselves the Sons of the South. Apart from a small continuity problem towards the end where we seemed to jump from scene to scene without any logical reason, this is another enthralling music-base mystery.
Ace Atkins is starting to make a habit of coming up with some very off-beat characters to play his villains, rather reminiscent of James W. Hall and his unique portrayal of rogues. In his previous book, , Atkins introduced us to Annie and Fannie, a couple of killer prostitutes with a love of Archie comics and, in Annie's case, a special relationship with her knife. Now, in Dark End of the Street we get a hit man who is not only a devotee of Elvis Presley but who believes Elvis is a divine being. Although the man is obviously an efficient and remorseless killer it's rather difficult to take a man seriously when he's kneeling and praying to his higher being, Elvis Presley.
He has also done a terrific job of capturing the atmosphere of Memphis through the style of music Travers recalls, the bars he frequents on Beale Street and the house styles that are noted as he moves through the city. I enjoyed experiencing the feeling of visiting Memphis almost as much as the story around which the visit was based.
August 27, 2016
Having "done" New Orleans and part of the Delta, then moved on to Chicago, Atkins takes a swing at the Memphis Blues. The complex plot involves political corruption and a teenage hitman (we've met him before) and is ultimately scattered and unsatisfying.
Having met up with gangster A 1 Capone in the first book in this series, I wasn't all that surprised to encounter A 1 Jolson in this one. But really can't the publisher find a more effective editor? The book is filled with dreadful typos and ridiculously clumsy writing. My favorite? "She picked up one of the many compacts and twirled it in her fingers as she flopped onto her back and moved her hands over her breasts...."
Neat trick!
Having met up with gangster A 1 Capone in the first book in this series, I wasn't all that surprised to encounter A 1 Jolson in this one. But really can't the publisher find a more effective editor? The book is filled with dreadful typos and ridiculously clumsy writing. My favorite? "She picked up one of the many compacts and twirled it in her fingers as she flopped onto her back and moved her hands over her breasts...."
Neat trick!
January 10, 2013
Nick Travers is back in Atkins' third book in the series. Going back and forth between New Orleans and Memphis, traveling the backroads - the Delta atmosphere is front and center again. With engaging vividly drawn characters/quirky and very bad short fused villians. Atkins takes the reader for a rough ride into the south's underbelly....southern noir at it's best.
September 21, 2020
A chilling story with many twists, but undermined by its many faults.
The main character, a bumbling samaritan, is shallow and two dimensional although some peripheral characters are a bit better. Loaded with stereotypes and yet ironically abhoring them. Good versus evil is stark with an absence of any shades of gray. The use of poor grammar, even when reflecting the character's thoughts, is distracting.
The main character, a bumbling samaritan, is shallow and two dimensional although some peripheral characters are a bit better. Loaded with stereotypes and yet ironically abhoring them. Good versus evil is stark with an absence of any shades of gray. The use of poor grammar, even when reflecting the character's thoughts, is distracting.
June 26, 2017
This is the kind of mystery novel where the protagonist is being stalked by psychopathic hitmen from almost the start of the mystery, so it's as much an adventure story as it is a trad mystery. It's pretty silly, too, in a lot of ways, probably not meant to be taken all that seriously. But in spite of that and a host of other weirdnesses, I kind of enjoyed this.
I like the idea of the main character Nick Travers, a former NFL player who is now an academic who researches lost bluesmen as part of his work at, I think, Tulane. The story repeats a lot of elements of blooz-love that are interrogated more fiercley in White Tears, and I found the racial politics of this story kind of icky, and that's before we find out who is really the racist in this book-- there's entirely too much white savior stuff happening here for me to be comfortable with it. There are also a lot of black characters who lurk and pour coffee. But Atkins and his fans would probably say I'm taking this all too seriously, and in this instance, I'm likely to agree with them, and U, at least, feels like a competent sideman.
The main story, about the intersection of a believed dead 60s soul singer and the rise of a white supremacist political candidate to be governor of TN, is, well, what it sounds like-- far-fetched, confused, and never really all that credible. It tells you a lot that Travers murders a man as part of a rescue at a Tunica, MS casino in the first 50 pages and then the man's entire existence is wiped out by page 100. If that seems kosher with you, I think you could do a lot worse than reading the rest of this oddly charming mystery.
I like the idea of the main character Nick Travers, a former NFL player who is now an academic who researches lost bluesmen as part of his work at, I think, Tulane. The story repeats a lot of elements of blooz-love that are interrogated more fiercley in White Tears, and I found the racial politics of this story kind of icky, and that's before we find out who is really the racist in this book-- there's entirely too much white savior stuff happening here for me to be comfortable with it. There are also a lot of black characters who lurk and pour coffee. But Atkins and his fans would probably say I'm taking this all too seriously, and in this instance, I'm likely to agree with them, and U, at least, feels like a competent sideman.
The main story, about the intersection of a believed dead 60s soul singer and the rise of a white supremacist political candidate to be governor of TN, is, well, what it sounds like-- far-fetched, confused, and never really all that credible. It tells you a lot that Travers murders a man as part of a rescue at a Tunica, MS casino in the first 50 pages and then the man's entire existence is wiped out by page 100. If that seems kosher with you, I think you could do a lot worse than reading the rest of this oddly charming mystery.
September 7, 2024
This brings Nick to Memphis looking for a blues singer, Clyde James, who disappeared about 30 years ago after his wife and one of his band members are murdered. There's a personal connection as Clyde's sister Loretta is like family to Nick, and he's trying to locate him for Loretta after a couple of thugs visit her in New Orleans looking for him. Nick. while searching for Clyde, finds himself rescuing a college girl, whose parents were recently murdered and who herself has been kidnapped and is being tortured for information she doesn't have. The two join forces, following a complex road to solving her parents' murders, finding Clyde and solving a 30 year old murder.
This is a pretty complicated thriller set primarily in the world of Memphis blues, but also caught up in a Tennessee gubernatorial election just weeks/days away. One of the most striking things for me was that this book, published in 2002, plays out on a state level the kind of crazy-assed politics we are seeing today playing out nationally. I should not have been surprised as the roots of what we have been experiencing today go back decades. f
I think this is the most complex of the Nick Travers Blues series written by the author. There's one more book in the series, and a short story. I am already mourning the end.
BWF - Letter D - no tag alas, even though fits SAD!
This is a pretty complicated thriller set primarily in the world of Memphis blues, but also caught up in a Tennessee gubernatorial election just weeks/days away. One of the most striking things for me was that this book, published in 2002, plays out on a state level the kind of crazy-assed politics we are seeing today playing out nationally. I should not have been surprised as the roots of what we have been experiencing today go back decades. f
I think this is the most complex of the Nick Travers Blues series written by the author. There's one more book in the series, and a short story. I am already mourning the end.
BWF - Letter D - no tag alas, even though fits SAD!
August 30, 2018
All Nick Travers had to do was drive up Highway 61 from New Orleans to Memphis and track down the lost brother of one of his best friends. But as Travers knows, these simple jobs seldom turn out smoothly.
A great story about a guy who teaches at Tulane, but is doing research on the Blues. Has a lot of connections in the industry and they seem to be living the story of the Blues.
A great story that takes place between Memphis and New Orleans....
This character is as intriguing as Quinn Colson.
A great story about a guy who teaches at Tulane, but is doing research on the Blues. Has a lot of connections in the industry and they seem to be living the story of the Blues.
A great story that takes place between Memphis and New Orleans....
This character is as intriguing as Quinn Colson.
January 17, 2020
I just finished this book. Boy was it ever exciting. Nick had a lot of things going on for him in this one. He stayed real busy, lost another vehicle, his dear friends one was shot and in the process their business was set on fired and in the end it left it as it may not be rebuilt. So on to the next one I go. I did enjoy this book.
May 17, 2020
I read this too long ago to remember it, but I noted that it was “a good, gritty hardboiled mystery� set in New Orleans and Nashville, featuring Nick Travers, a blues scholar and teacher, as well as the Dixie Mafia and Elvis. 7/10.
May 7, 2023
All over the place, like daytime shock-TV. Were the adult ex-kiddie pageant winner and the Elvis worshiper meant to be funny? White savior vibes, too. Still, it’s bluesy heart is in the right place, and it got me through a few sick days in bed.
July 3, 2024
Ace Atkins is a great writer and a favorite of mine. This character is good but I didn’t really attach to Nick Travers like I have to some of his other characters. This is also book 3 of the series & I didn’t read the first two. Good book, just not worth the 5 stars to me.
October 15, 2017
A good read
Dark End of the Street is a good, solid mystery that combines characters that you feel like you get to know and a feeling of being in the NOLA scene.
Dark End of the Street is a good, solid mystery that combines characters that you feel like you get to know and a feeling of being in the NOLA scene.
October 6, 2018
Much too long because of very twisted plot. Hard to follow.
Much too long because a very twisted, hard to follow plot. I won't recommend it to anyone. The author has lost his way
Much too long because a very twisted, hard to follow plot. I won't recommend it to anyone. The author has lost his way
November 1, 2018
Pretty good thriller, not quite believable: good guys are too resilient and bad guys are too stupid. I like the addition of the young woman with a revenge mission.
April 13, 2019
A complex thriller with Memphis Mojo and Grishamesque pacing.
did-not-finish
May 6, 2020Didn’t finish
November 5, 2021
A real good read!
June 19, 2022
Too twisted to completely follow…I was often confused.
October 31, 2014
I did not take to this book at all but it wasn't actively bad, so I slogged right through it, and while I can now honestly and completely review it, my opinion is more negative than it might have been had I just bailed when I realised I wasn't getting much out of it. It's your classic catch-22 situation. Incompletely negative incomplete review or completely negative complete review? It's a difficult question because when you get down to it nobody flipping cares.
So there's this guy and he goes off looking for this other guy and there's bad guys and they're after this girl and they killed her parents and she's sad and distraught and suddenly she's captured and going to be tortured, oh noes! But the first guy saves her! Yays! But the bad guys are after them both now! Oh noes! And how does it tie in to the second guy and these other guys we haven't even mentioned yet but who are in the book doing stuff? What, you want the whole plot served up on a platter? Slog through the damn thing yourself.
in fairness, it's not even that bad. It's quite well written for the most part, and the writer knows the South and knows his music and it comes across. He also knows how to put together a lead character who is sort of down-at-heels but intellectual but physical but doggedly honest but smart-alecy but likes blues music but is friends with black people but likes his women but is kinda lazy except when it comes to rescuing damsels and protecting those he loves which includes lots of black people but who has a particular black friend who is bigger and smarter and more of a pro than he is, and it all ends up looking like some bizarre inhuman indentikit portrait of a type of PI hero rather than an actual human being, veering dangerously near self-parody, particularly when he chooses to be rude for no good reason and we're supposed to find it charmingly cocky. The heroine isn't a whole lot better, being less a character and more a collection of emotional responses to various, usually traumatic, stimuli.
Supporting characters have it better. The surrogate black parents are types, but boldly drawn. The big tough black friend is the same, but every time he turns up the book starts to remind me, unfavourably, of Hap and Leonard, Joe R Lansdale's pair of good-guy ne'er do wells. The psychotic hitman who thinks he's a conduit for Elvis and the narcissistic con-woman branching out into murder are interesting, but not THAT interesting, and though the writing is, as I said, usually pretty good, action scenes aren't executed terribly well and the big climactic shoot-out is lamentably devoid of suspense.
I just realised I went and automatically gave this five stars. What the heck, I don't really like the star rating system anyway.
So there's this guy and he goes off looking for this other guy and there's bad guys and they're after this girl and they killed her parents and she's sad and distraught and suddenly she's captured and going to be tortured, oh noes! But the first guy saves her! Yays! But the bad guys are after them both now! Oh noes! And how does it tie in to the second guy and these other guys we haven't even mentioned yet but who are in the book doing stuff? What, you want the whole plot served up on a platter? Slog through the damn thing yourself.
in fairness, it's not even that bad. It's quite well written for the most part, and the writer knows the South and knows his music and it comes across. He also knows how to put together a lead character who is sort of down-at-heels but intellectual but physical but doggedly honest but smart-alecy but likes blues music but is friends with black people but likes his women but is kinda lazy except when it comes to rescuing damsels and protecting those he loves which includes lots of black people but who has a particular black friend who is bigger and smarter and more of a pro than he is, and it all ends up looking like some bizarre inhuman indentikit portrait of a type of PI hero rather than an actual human being, veering dangerously near self-parody, particularly when he chooses to be rude for no good reason and we're supposed to find it charmingly cocky. The heroine isn't a whole lot better, being less a character and more a collection of emotional responses to various, usually traumatic, stimuli.
Supporting characters have it better. The surrogate black parents are types, but boldly drawn. The big tough black friend is the same, but every time he turns up the book starts to remind me, unfavourably, of Hap and Leonard, Joe R Lansdale's pair of good-guy ne'er do wells. The psychotic hitman who thinks he's a conduit for Elvis and the narcissistic con-woman branching out into murder are interesting, but not THAT interesting, and though the writing is, as I said, usually pretty good, action scenes aren't executed terribly well and the big climactic shoot-out is lamentably devoid of suspense.
I just realised I went and automatically gave this five stars. What the heck, I don't really like the star rating system anyway.
September 19, 2016
After I was critical of Ace, this really was extremely good. The best of the Nick Travers. AND he left much of the blues history and hair across the face out. I liked this one a lot. Thus he is a recommended author. What else? Yes, the end still gets a little twisty and turny. No matter. You go, Ace.
November 7, 2012
Book number Three in the Nick Travers series by Ace Atkins - 3 stars. Loretta asks Nick if he will find her brother, Clyde James - a once popular soul singer - whom she hasn't seen in 35 years. Nick travels to Memphis looking for Clyde. Once there he rescues a girl who has been kidnapped and helps her investigate the murder of her parents; he becomes entangled with 1960s Memphis soul music, the Dixie Mafia, crooked politicians, riverboat gambling, and the return of Jesse Garon, the insane, Elvis worshiping hit man we met in book one.
I am giving this book three stars only because I am trying to be generous. It has rained here steadily for the last week, and I am in a dark mood. On top of that this entire book was dreary - it had no positive tones to the story, nothing to break my mood at all. In the end, I can't accurately judge such a book - did it leave me depressed because that was the author's intent, or was it just the weather. Well, I have liked Atkins other books so I gave this one the benefit of the doubt.
I am giving this book three stars only because I am trying to be generous. It has rained here steadily for the last week, and I am in a dark mood. On top of that this entire book was dreary - it had no positive tones to the story, nothing to break my mood at all. In the end, I can't accurately judge such a book - did it leave me depressed because that was the author's intent, or was it just the weather. Well, I have liked Atkins other books so I gave this one the benefit of the doubt.
October 14, 2012
True confessions: I started a new job during the reading of this book, and as a result of the new job I had a ton of non-fiction reading to do, so this novel was read in spurts since I started it in June, 2012. That might actually be some sort of record for me, as I generally can polish off a book in a week or so.
With that said, I didn't find this one as enjoyable as the first two books in the series. Maybe the formula (Nick seeks secrets buried in the past) is wearing a bit thin, but I found it hard to stay engaged, and the two eccentric assassins really didn't hold my interest. There were a few major plot points that regained my interest about 3/4 of the way through, but by then it was almost too late.
I really like Ace's work, and I'll definitely read more of it, but this wasn't among his strongest efforts.
With that said, I didn't find this one as enjoyable as the first two books in the series. Maybe the formula (Nick seeks secrets buried in the past) is wearing a bit thin, but I found it hard to stay engaged, and the two eccentric assassins really didn't hold my interest. There were a few major plot points that regained my interest about 3/4 of the way through, but by then it was almost too late.
I really like Ace's work, and I'll definitely read more of it, but this wasn't among his strongest efforts.
December 5, 2009
There are many things I love about this guy. His vivid descriptions of places along the blues highway, his constant references to music and actual bluesmen, and his detective, Nick Travers--blues tracker and musicology professor--are a delight. Somehow, a few of his weird characters creeped me out this time. Parts of the plot also seemed weak and/or confusing. Atkins was a first rate crime reporter and started the Travers series while he still had his day job. I read an interview that quoted him as saying that he was "feeling trapped by this series". His gift is mixing fact and fiction but it sounds like his newer, non-Nick books focus on the actual crime first and weave a story around it. He is a really good writer so the non-Nick books may be great.
February 8, 2017
Another great entry in the Nick Travers blues historian murder mysteries. I love this series. Wonderful characters and always engaging plots.
November 28, 2008
Smoky crime thriller steeped in great details from Memphis and New Orleans, the music, the BBQ - another great book from Ace Atkins.
I'll need to go back to his other books - Leaving Trunk Blues was good, too.
Like any good book that works music well (this is a variant on the story of James Carr), I needed to hear the great Memphis music that is part of the weave of this one - Otis Redding, James Carr, Elvis ...
I'll need to go back to his other books - Leaving Trunk Blues was good, too.
Like any good book that works music well (this is a variant on the story of James Carr), I needed to hear the great Memphis music that is part of the weave of this one - Otis Redding, James Carr, Elvis ...
November 8, 2011
I really liked this book and found it hard to put down. The characters were interesting and many of them were likeable. Others were despicable, as they should have been. The story was intricate and had elements of politics, regional culture, racial issues, and Elvis. I only wished there was a map of all the areas covered and a glossary for some of regional langauge.
June 24, 2012
The violence is way up from the first couple of Nick Travers books, the villains are becoming more Grand Guignol and the plots ever more convoluted but Atkins really sells the changes and the new narrative strategies(First and Third Person at different points in the story)are quite effective...Atkins seems to be a genre writer who works harder and gets better with each book...
March 8, 2013
It has probably been three or four years since I read this book. I like the style of writing done by Ace Atkins. While he brings mystery, sex and history into his novel, he is not redundant in either. I have travelled the roads he writes of in the Dark End of the Street. I know Memphis and New Orleans and can so identify to the fromation of the characters that he brings to life.
January 25, 2010
This is my first Atkins book, but certainly won't be my last. I loved his blunt and dark yet humorous writing style. I generally go for the legal-thriller or who-dun-it kind of story, but this one grabbed me from the start and held my attention like few books do.
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